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Can the relationship White people have with the figure of the dog, in what currently exists as South Africa, be free of antiblackness? Following instances where I saw black women who worked as domestic workers walk dogs belonging to their White employers, I write these letters addressed to you, my sister, Palesa – meditating on the dog-Human relationships as sites of racial violence. The core analytic framework and theory I employ to explore these extreme, mundane, and in-between forms of violence, is Afro-Pessimism.

[pt] O Antropoceno, enquanto o reconhecimento do impacto da atividade humana no planeta, tem sido um ponto crucial e transdisciplinar de debate. Esta dissertação intervém na teorização sobre o Antropoceno nas Relações Internacionais (RI), defendendo a importância de incluir uma crítica à produção nesses esforços. Entender a produção como uma determinação histórica central para compreender nossa situação atual e posicionar o trabalho e a tecnologia como tópicos cruciais é um movimento teórico e político importante porque constrói um terreno comum entre lutas ambientais e trabalhistas. Em primeiro lugar, esclarecemos a conexão entre o Antropoceno e a produção, argumentando como negligenciá-la prejudica o caráter crítico de certas abordagens em RI. Essa afirmação é feita por meio de um diálogo com o conceito de metabolismo desenvolvido na Ecologia Marxista, enfatizando o trabalho como atividade metabólica, ou seja, uma forma de relacionamento socialmente mediada com a natureza. Em segundo lugar, destacamos como essas interações com a natureza não são apenas sempre parciais, mas mediadas por ferramentas, máquinas e outros aparelhos. Opondo concepções de tecnologia como expressão de certas ideias de matéria, optando por ver a maquinaria como uma conurbação de fluxos que condensa divisões sociais mutantes do trabalho e cuja materialidade, desde a Revolução Industrial, se baseia sobretudo em como eles dividem e gerenciam energia e informação. Olhar para essa divisão permite uma narração sintética da trajetória tecnológica em que o Antropoceno emerge e o projeta como um regime de informação e energia. Por último, analisamos a hipótese do comunismo como gestão coletiva da alienação. A alienação aparece não como alienação de um potencial criativo que compartilhamos com a natureza, mas como a capacidade ambivalente do ser humano e da natureza de criarem coisas das quais perdemos o controle e que podem vir a nos determinar, mudando o significado tanto do humano quanto da natureza. Enquanto o capitalismo é um modo específico de alienação baseado na produção de valor que gera determinações específicas, o comunismo aparece como a reconstrução experimental coletiva de nossa organização social de produção, uma tarefa inacabável que implica uma mudança na forma como o humano e a natureza são determinados pela produção. / [en] The Anthropocene, which entails the recognition of the impact of human activity on the planet, has been a crucial point of transdisciplinary debate. This thesis intervenes in the theorization about the Anthropocene in International Relations (IR) by arguing for the importance of including a criticism of production in those efforts. Casting production as a central historical determination for understanding our current predicament, and positioning labor and technology as crucial topics is an important theoretical e political move because it enables the establishment of a common ground between environmental and labor struggles. First, we clarify the connection between the Anthropocene and production, arguing how neglecting it blunts the critical edge of critical approaches within IR. This claim is made through a dialogue with the concept of metabolism as advanced in Marxist Ecology, emphasizing labor as metabolic activity, that is, a socially mediated form of relating to nature. Second, we foreground how those interactions with nature are not only always partial, but mediated by tools, machines and other apparatuses. We run against conceptions of technology that cast it as the expression of certain ideas of matter, opting to see machinery as a conurbation of flows that condenses mutating social divisions of labor and whose materiality, since the Industrial Revolution, is particularly based on how they split and manage energy and information. Looking at that split allows a synthetic narration of the technological trajectory in which the Anthropocene emerges and casts it as a regime of information and energy. Last, we end by entertaining the hypothesis of communism as the collective management of alienation. Alienation appears not as estrangement from a creative potential we share with nature, but as the ambivalent capacity of the human and of nature to create things from which we lose control and may come to determine us, changing what both human and nature mean. While capitalism is a specific mode of alienation based on value production that generates specific determinations, communism appears as the collective experimental remaking of our social organization of production, an unfinishable task that while performed changes how the human and nature are determined by production.

In recent years, there has been a pronounced (re-)turn to questions of ontology, matter, and realism in the humanities and social sciences. What all these theoretical formations have in common is their profound challenge to human exceptionalism. Taken together, these approaches have productively been described as constituting a “nonhuman turn.” This article is a theoretical exploration of the relationship between the intellectual and political practice of Cultural Studies on the one hand and the nonhuman turn on the other. For this purpose, it brings both “into encounter” (Donna Haraway), investigating points of affinity, tension, and compatibility. The essay argues that such a theoretical encounter could prove to be tremendously fruitful, both intellectually and politically, and that Cultural Studies should thus take a genuine interest in these new approaches, engage with them, put them to the test, and, when needed, “translate” and “re-articulate” them. The result could be a Cultural Studies for the Anthropocene which would have a lot to contribute to the critical (cultural/political/social/economic) struggles being fought today.

Notre thèse s’intéresse à des pratiques expérimentales et contemporaines du cinéma qui explorent la matière de l’image cinématographique (argentique ou numérique) via des altérations visuelles. Les œuvres sélectionnées supposent un travail de captation, d’enregistrement d’espaces naturels, produit en amont de l’expérimentation matérielle. Les textures et les effets visuels représentent le point de départ de nos analyses filmiques ainsi que de nos recherches théoriques, dont l’altération représente le cœur battant. Nous réfléchissons un ensemble d’œuvres matérialistes de nature, exprimant la nature par l’intermédiaire de la matière cinématographique, en leur adressant la question suivante : comment le cinéma se ferait-il l’expression écocentrique de la nature ? En replaçant ces œuvres dans notre contexte environnemental, nous questionnons aussi l’engagement écologique qu’elles suscitent : que peut exprimer le cinéma de notre nature anthropocène ? Comment adresse-t-il ces enjeux naturels, environnementaux ? Réciproquement, nous interrogeons aussi l’influence des espaces naturels filmés dans cette expression : comment leurs caractéristiques esthétiques, leur topographie, leur état actuel, conditionnent-ils cette expressivité cinématographique ? À ces questions, le postulat tenu est le suivant : les altérations visuelles de l’image en mouvement développent une expression plus directe de la nature, une mise en présence. L’expérimentation altérante de certaines caractéristiques du cinéma (mouvement, couleur, durée) accorde cette expression médiale sensorielle à la nature filmée qui propose d’en faire l’expérience, de façon sensible. Elle s’appuie sur la sensorialité et l’esthétique initiales de ces espaces naturels, que les artistes démultiplient à travers les altérations. Cette expression naît donc de la complémentarité entre les potentiels esthétiques des lieux naturels filmés et de ceux du cinéma. Cette expressivité de la nature se constitue selon nous à travers trois principales actions altérantes, chaque film en présentant au moins l’une d’entre elles : 1- les altérations de l’image décrivent les espaces filmés ; 2- elles composent un milieu à/dans l’image, un milieu à la fois naturel et filmique (s’appuyant sur les caractéristiques de la nature filmée et sur les possibilités du média) ; 3- elles renouvellent l’attention à la nature, en sensibilisant notamment à sa dimension anthropocène. L’altération de l’image témoigne donc de notre expérience vécue de la modification d’environnements en captant leurs transformations et en en figurant la trace visible (l’altération). Présenter, par l’image altérée, l’actualité de cette nature contemporaine soulève ainsi les enjeux complexes et pluriels du contexte qui a fait advenir cet état dégradé de la nature. L’espace de l’image travaillé par l’altération renvoie métaphoriquement à celui que nous occupons dans le monde naturel, et à la façon dont nous l’investissons (à l’altération que nous engendrons dans ces espaces). Une expression écocentrique de la nature en ressort et nous sensibilise, nous engage dans sa condition dégradée, ruinée. / Our thesis focuses on experimental and contemporary cinema practices that explore the materiality of the cinematographic image (analog or digital cinema) via visual alterations. The artworks selected presuppose an effort of capturing and recording natural spaces, produced upstream of material experimentation. Textures and visual effects are the starting point for our filmic analysis and theoretical research, of which alteration is the beating heart. We reflect on a range of materialist artworks of nature, expressing nature through the medium of cinematic material, addressing the following question to them: how can cinema become the ecocentric expression of nature? By placing these artworks in our environmental context, we also question the ecological commitment they engender: what can cinema express about our anthropocenic nature? How does it address these natural, environmental issues? Reciprocally, we also question the influence of the natural spaces filmed in this expression: how do their aesthetic characteristics, their topography, their current state, condition this cinematic expressivity? To these questions, our postulate is the following: visual alterations to the moving image develop a more direct expression of nature, a mise en présence. The altering experimentation of certain characteristics of cinema (movement, color, duration) grants this sensory medial expression to the filmed nature which offers to experience it, in a sensitive way. It draws on the initial sensoriality and aesthetics of these natural spaces, which the artists multiply through alteration. This expression is born of the complementarity between the aesthetics potentials of filmed natural sites and those of cinema. According to us, this expressiveness of nature is constituted through three main altering actions, with each film presenting at least one of them: 1- the alterations to the image describe the filmed spaces; 2- they compose a setting in/within the image, a setting that is both natural and filmic (drawing on the characteristics of the nature filmed and on the possibilities of the media); 3- they renew our attention to nature, notably by raising awareness of its anthropocenic dimension. The alteration of the image therefore bears witness to our lived experience of changing environments by capturing their transformations and representing their visible trace (alteration). Presenting the actuality of contemporary nature through altered images raises the complex and plural issues of the context that brought about this degraded state of nature. The space of the image worked by alteration metaphorically refers to the space we occupy in the natural world, and to the manner we invest it (to the alteration we generate in these spaces). An ecocentric expression of nature emerges, sensitizing us and engaging us in its degraded, ruined condition.

Während des Anthropozäns führten zunehmende, durch Menschen verursachte Umweltveränderungen zu rasanten Übergängen von naturnahen zu neuartigen Ökosystemen. Arten die in Ökosystemen während dieser Übergänge überdauern, könnten Veränderungen ihrer Merkmale aufweisen, die sie befähigen, sich an die neuen Bedingungen anzupassen. Andere Arten hingegen verschwinden aus neuartigen Ökosystemen da sie sich nicht an die rasant entstehenden neuen Umweltbedingungen anpassen können. In meiner Dissertation versuche ich anhand ausgewählter Insekten-Arten zu verstehen, welche Merkmale es Arten ermöglichen in Zeiten rasanter, von Menschen verursachter Umweltveränderungen zu überdauern. Hierzu untersuche ich, stellvertretend für die Fähigkeit der Adaption, morphologische und biochemische Merkmale von Arten aus der Region Berlin/Brandenburg in Deutschland. Diese Region ist durch zunehmende Urbanisierung und Landnutzung für den Ackerbau innerhalb der letzten 150 Jahre gekennzeichnet. Für rückblickende Analysen entlang eines raumzeitlichen Gradienten untersuchte ich Sammlungsexemplare aus Naturkundemuseen die durch neu gesammelte Exemplare erweitert wurden. In Paper 1 untersuche ich in der Nachtfalterart Agrotis exclamationis Veränderungen von Merkmalen, die ein Verhalten begünstigen vom Licht angezogen zu werden, als Antwort auf die Zunahme künstlicher Lichtquellen in der Nacht in einer Region über die letzten 137 Jahre. Für diese Analysen verwende ich zurückwirkende Radianz-Werte basierend auf Satellitendaten der Jahre 2012 bis 2019. Entlang des räumlichen Gradienten konnte ich keine Merkmalsveränderungen nachweisen. Allerdings konnte ich Veränderungen der Körpergrößen und in Weibchen Veränderungen der Augengrößen über die Zeit nachweisen. Beide Veränderungen sind jedoch nicht direkt auf zunehmendes künstliches Licht in der Nacht zurückzuführen. Ich diskutiere den indirekten Einfluss künstlichen Lichts in der Nacht auf die nachgewiesenen Merkmalsveränderungen als Verstärkung der Habitat Fragmentierung sowie einer Beeinflussung der Sicht von Weibchen auf deren Wirtspflanzen. Allerdings konnte ich zeigen, dass in Weibchen ein Trend zwischen kleineren Augen und zunehmenden künstlichem Licht in der Nacht über die Zeit zu erkennen ist. Dies könnte auf einen ersten Hinweis hindeuten, dass morphologische Merkmalsveränderugen als Antwort auf zunehmendes künstliches Licht in der Nacht bereits stattfinden. In Paper 2 untersuche ich ob zunehmende Urbanisierung und Landnutzung für den Ackerbau über die letzten 125 Jahre sowie zwischen beiden Landnutzungstypen einen Einfluss auf die Körpergrößen und Biochemie zweier Laufkäferarten, Harpalus affinis und Harpalus rufipes, hat. Ich konnte keine raumzeitlichen Veränderung der Körpergrößen in Weibchen beider Arten nachweisen, allerdings eine Abnahme der Körpergröße in männlichen H. rufipes in der Stadt über die Zeit, wohingegen deren Körpergrößen im ländlichen Raum über die gleiche Zeit konstant blieben. Ich diskutiere diese Ergebnisse als ein Resultat verschiedener Aktivitätstypen beider Arten. Die bioschemischen Untersuchungen zeigen, dass der intensivierte Einsatz von Düngemitteln einen Einfluss auf die Biochemie derer Käfer hat, die in Ackerlandschaften vorkommen. Dies zeigt sich in meist höheren Anreicherungen stabiler Stickstoff-Isotopen in deren Geweben im Vergleich zu Käfern die im urbanen Raum leben. Allerdings konnte ich zeigen, dass einige urbane Habitate einen ähnlich hohen Stickstoffgehalt wie Ackerlandschaften aufzuweisen scheinen, was sich in den Geweben der dort lebenden Käfer wiederspiegelt und auf eine hohe Heterogenität urbaner Habitate hinweist. In meiner 3. Publikation untersuche ich die Auswirkungen der durch Menschen verursachte Umweltveränderungen auf Farbmorph-Häufigkeiten der Laufkäferart Harpalus affinis zwischen urbanen und ländlichen Regionen über die letzten 125 Jahre. Ich konnte einen Sexualdichromatismus nachweisen sowie generell konstant bleibende Farbmorphen entlang der raum-zeitlichen Gradienten in Männchen und Weibchen, außer in den Weibchen die im urbanen Raum über die Zeit untersucht wurden. Hierbei war in Zeiten mit hoher städtischer Luftverschmutzung durch Ruß die bronze Farbmorphe der Weibchen in höhere Abundanz vertreten, wohingegen die grüne Farbmorphe mit abnehmender Luftverschmutzung im Laufe der Zeit an Häufigkeit zunahmen. Ich interpretiere diese Ergebnisse als ein Resultat der natürlichen Selektion der jeweils am wenigsten für Prädatoren auffälligen Farbmorphe in der entsprechenden Zeit. Das Fehlen einer Änderung der Farbmorph-Häufigkeit bei den Männchen interpretiere ich hingegen als Ergebnis der sexuellen Selektion. In meinen Untersuchungen konnte ich zeigen, dass rasante, von Menschen verursachte Umweltveränderungen morphologische und bioschemische Merkmalsveränderungen in Arten, die in veränderten Lebensräumen überdauern, verursachen können. Allerdings sind diese Merkmalsveränderungen abhängig von der jeweiligen Art, deren Aktivitätstyp und Geschlecht. Zusätzlich konnte ich zeigen, dass manche Merkmalsveränderungen derzeit nicht klar nachweisbar sind aufgrund der relativ kurzen Zeit in der durch Menschen verursachte Umweltveränderungen stattfinden. / During the Anthropocene increasing human induced environmental changes have led to rapid transitions from natural to novel ecosystems. Species that persist during this transition process may respond to these new conditions by altering their traits. This may enable some species to persist where others disappear due to their lack of adaptability to these new conditions. In this thesis, I aim to understand what enable selected insect species to persist during human induced rapid environmental changes. I use morphology and biochemistry as a proxy for species’ adaptations in the German Berlin-Brandenburg area, an area that is characterized by increasing urbanisation and agricultural land-use over the past 150 years. For retrospective analyses over a spatio-temporal gradient, I examined voucher specimens from natural history museums combined with newly collected specimens. In paper 1, I examine changes in flight-to-light dependent traits in the moth species Agrotis exclamationis in response to increasing artificial night light in the same region over the past 137 years. For these analyses I use retrospective radiance values based on satellite data from the years 2012 to 2019. Along the spatial gradient I could not find any trait changes. However, I verified changes in body size and females’ eye-size over time, although this was not directly related to artificial night light. I suggest that artificial night light influences trait changes indirectly by reinforcing habitat fragmentation and influencing females’ sighting of hostplants. However, I could show a trend between smaller eyed females and increasing artificial night light over time. This provides, the first evidence that morphological trait changes in response to increasing artificial night light might already taking place. In the second paper I investigate if increasing urbanisation and land-use for agriculture across space and time (the past 125 years) have an influence on body size and biochemistry in two ground beetle species, Harpalus affinis and Harpalus rufipes. I found no spatio-temporal changes in both species’ female body size but identified a decrease in male H. rufipes’ body size in the city, whereas their sizes stayed constant in rural areas over time. I discuss different activity pattern of both species as the reason for these findings. The biochemical examinations show that intense application of fertilizer influences the biochemistry of specimens living in agricultural habitats. This, results in stable nitrogen isotope signatures in their tissues that are mostly higher than those living in urban habitats. However, I show that some urban habitats might be equally enriched with nitrogen (as reflected in the specimens’ tissues), indicating the heterogeneity of urban habitats. In paper 3, I investigate the effects of human induced environmental changes on the frequency of colour change in the ground beetle species Harpalus affinis between urban and rural habitats over the past 125 years. I found sexual dichromatism, and similar colour morphs between males and females over time, with the exception of females examined from urban regions. In this case, bronze colour morphs in females were more abundant in times with high levels of soot pollution in the city, whereas green colour morphs became more dominant with decreasing levels of soot pollution over time. I interpret this finding to be driven by natural selection of the less cryptic colour morph during the respective time period, whereas the lack of any change in colour morph frequencies in males is likely the result of sexual selection. These studies show that rapid human induced environmental changes are triggering morphological and biochemical trait changes in species that persist in altered habitats across space and time. However, these trait changes are dependent on the species, their activity pattern and sexes. Additionally, I show that some trait changes are not clearly verifiable at present due to the relatively short timeframe in which human induced environmental changes are taking place.

Yes / What is the nature and extent of engagement within peace research with the unfolding global environmental crisis, as captured in discourses about the ‘Anthropocene’(Bonneuil & Fressoz, 2017; Dalby, 2015)? Is the peace research scholarly community connecting with significant debates taking place in the earth sciences or among social and political movements? If it is, in what ways? Are concepts of violence and peace evolving in line with the major trends driving change this century, including climate change? This article seeks answers to these questions through a systematic survey and thematic analysis of publications in key peace-related journals and book series.What is the nature and extent of engagement within peace research with the unfolding global environmental crisis, as captured in discourses about the ‘Anthropocene’(Bonneuil & Fressoz, 2017; Dalby, 2015)? Is the peace research scholarly community connecting with significant debates taking place in the earth sciences or among social and political movements? If it is, in what ways? Are concepts of violence and peace evolving in line with the major trends driving change this century, including climate change? This article seeks answers to these questions through a systematic survey and thematic analysis of publications in key peace-related journals and book series.

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